1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a subdividing apparatus capable of subdividing soup such as miso soup, curry and the like every approximately given quantity without separating ingredients from soup, and capable of providing efficient subdivision even where frozen dry soup or the like is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
In board out industries, restaurants, dining rooms in factories and the like when about 10 to 20 liters of canned food or retort, miso soup of frozen food, curry, corn soup, corn chouder or the like cooked in advance in separate locations are put into a large pot which are always heated to offer clients, the soup or the like has been ladled out by eye measure every predetermined quantity into a container while stirring it by a spoon.
Since soup or the like is always heated as described above it has been necessary to stir it frequently so as not to burn. Because of this, an exclusive-use worker need be employed to pose a problem that soup or the like becomes high in cost in terms of personal expenses. In addition, further problems were that unevenness in mixed quantity of ingredients occurs; since soup or the like is stirred frequently, ingredients get out of shape; and since a lid is opened every time of subdivision, dust or insects (or bugs) are mixed into soup, which is very unsanitary.
Further, soup has been heated only when offering to clients without heating always. In this case, however, there is a problem that sine it takes some time till soup is heated, soup cannot be offered to clients immediately.
For solving the problem as noted above, the present applicant has developed an apparatus which has been applied for a patent previously, in which a rod-like member (a screw valve) formed with a spiral angle is used to subdivide soup into a predetermined quantity so as not to be burned.
However, the above-described apparatus was very epoch-making in terms of solving the problem, but had difficulty that the apparatus price is high. In addition, recently, frozen dry soup, which is ingredients-contained soup obtained by adding water to powder and stirring and heating, is widely being used. In this proposal, a lump results unless soup is stirred while adding a small quantity of water when soup is stirred through a conventional screw valve, sufficient stirring could not be accomplished. Therefore, the above-described apparatus poses a problem that it takes time to subdivide soup, failing to obtain desired work efficiency of subdivision. A further problem was that even those other than frozen dry soup when a plurality of soup are exchanged and subdivided, the efficiency of subdividing work is not obtained satisfactorily similarly to that mentioned above.
It is an object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus capable of subdividing every approximately given quantity of ingredients and soup without separating the latter.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus capable of subdividing soup efficiently even when frozen dry soup is used.
It is another object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus capable of exchanging and subdividing a plurality of kinds of soup without trouble.
It is another object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus, according to which ingredients is hard to get out of shape.
It is another object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus which eliminates the possibility that a worker suffers from a burn, and which reduces the temperature raising time.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a subdividing apparatus capable of simplifying the apparatus to offer it at low costs.
For achieving the aforementioned objects, the present invention provides an apparatus for subdividing ingredients-contained soup into soup liquid containing an approximately given quantity of ingredients, comprising a container having stirring blade for stirring and mixing ingredients-contained soup, a constant-quantity tube having an opening communicated with an opening at the lower end of the container and an extrusion rod closely fitted so as to be slidable with the constant-quantity tube, wherein the forward and backward operation of the extrusion rod is carried out so as to maintain a state free from entry or discharge of air.
The forward and backward operation of the extrusion rod may be carried out so as to maintain a state free from entry or discharge of air such that the extrusion rod comes in contact with soup in a state that the extrusion rod has become extruded, the extrusion rod is moved backward to a position, and at the same time, ingredients-contained soup is pulled into the constant-quantity tube.
The ingredients-contained soup used in the present invention is soup in which ingredients is mixed approximately uniformly by stirring it by the stirring blade, and preferably, soup is subdivided while stirring.
Preferably, a cross-section of the container used in the present invention is circular or approximately circular. By using such a container as described, it is possible to effectively prevent ingredients from getting out of shape at the time of stirring.
In the present invention, preferably, the stirring blade are disposed at the lower part of the container, and the stirring blade are alternately rotated to left and right so that the ingredients and soup are mixed approximately uniformly.
Preferably, a tube is rotatably fitted in a stirring blade receiving chamber at the lower end of the container, an opening is formed at the outer circumference opposite surface of the tube, whereby when one opening comes in communication with the interior of the container, the other container comes in communication with the constant-quantity tube.
A cut-off valve having a constant-quantity tube is mounted on a frame (a server body), and an opening at the lower end of the container and the cut-off vale are detachably connected to thereby subdivide without trouble a plurality of kinds of soup or soup formed by adding water to frozen dry soup and stirring and heating.
For making the container having the stirring blade received therein detachable, a rotational shaft of the stirring blade and a rotational shaft of a motor may be detached through both fitting members having a fitting concave part and a fitting convex part, respectively.
The opening of the constant-quantity tube and the opening at the lower end of the container are put together, and the extrusion rod is moved back from the extruded position to a predetermined position whereby a predetermined quantity of ingredients and soup liquid are received into a chamber having a predetermined volume, after which the constant-quantity tube is rotated to coincide a discharge port formed in the lower surface of the cut-off valve with the opening of the constant-quantity tube, and the extrusion rod having the constant-quantity tube fitted therein is moved forward to thereby introduce ingredients and soup into a predetermined container.
In short, according to the present invention, the forward and backward operation of the extrusion rod is carried out so as to maintain a state free from in and out of air (a vacuum state) whereby even in the stirring state, subdividing can be done smoothly, and since the stirring blade are mounted, subdividing can be done efficiently even in a case where frozen dry soup is used.
Further, the container having soup received therein and a frame connected to the container to form a subdividing apparatus are made detachable whereby a plurality of kinds of soup can be exchanged and subdivided efficiently.
The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description.